Friday, October 29, 2010

“Big Boy” Erector Sets

I know that you know what I am talking about.   (hopefully) It was the rage when I was just a little girl, my brother’s just had to have them!  I just didn’t get it back then…..thought they were stupid….thought it was a waste of time….and knew it was just  a matter of time before pieces were all over the house and my mother would go crazy and throw them away, or they would get built and just sit on my brother’s shelves and look really dumb, never to be torn apart and erected into anything other than the first piece because there were SOOOO MANY PIECES.  UNTIL…..I became fascinated recently with the “big boys” version.  Like I am with fences popping out of NO WHERE and EVERYWHERE, miles and miles of them!  You will see what I mean….be patient with me for just a few minutes ok…..

To me….it is amazing to say the least….

the “old” ERECTOR SETS

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My version as seen through my eyes

 

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needless to say, I was obsessed with this!   silly I know! but that is who I am…an obsessed woman who is amazed with how these get here…just think about it…have you ever seen one put into place or established?  NOPE I bet you haven’t.  They just pop up over night…by weird aliens…probably.  Huh-Honey said he has witnessed them being erected, by helicopter.  WHAT? NO way..no way a helicopter can lift that….”OH YES THEY CAN” he says.  The WHOLE dang thing all at once..PHEW!  I would love to see that!

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even a telephone pole is exciting to me…

and I can’t tell you how a stupid fence makes me feel!  Just the lines are exciting….but I didn’t take pics of any fences this trip.

 

 

 

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even this drew me in…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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and the back road we travelled home on.  OH the wonderful things I saw and didn’t take pics of….hopefully next trip!

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I definitely need a new lens so that I can take closer pictures…I love the windmills they are like giant aliens from outer space.

halloweenn pies 

Have a wonderful fun filled Halloween, and in case you are wondering how pumpkin pies are made in restaurants…

Happy Ending..

Hugs and warm smiles across the many miles to you all!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Did I mention?

Nope don’t think I told you all about the AWESOME garage sale we had about a month ago!  Around these parts there are a lot of garage sales each weekend when the weather is good.  I can’t believe that I didn’t take and pics, probably because people were knocking on the door at 7:30 in the morning, before I even had a chance to dry my hair or get dressed!  Bottom line…we did very well….I guess I can say….I think I counted over $700 at the end of the day!  What did we sell?….well lots of things I was no longer attached to.  NO clothes….although I should have!  But there was a “girl” section (my part) and a boy section (Huh-honey’s stuff).  He always has good “stuff”.  Man stuff….like gages, regulators, tools, and the big seller for kids….was the marshmallow shooters!  Bob should have made a hundred because we could not keep them on the table!lizard rescue 043   There were purple camo, green camo for the boys and every other color you could think of!  We plan on making more for Christmas and maybe just maybe coming up with a clever way to sell them.  Yeah that’s the only thing I have a picture of!  We literally gave things away.  At one time, the cars were blocking the street and in all honesty, I KNOW we had over 200 people show up throughout the day.  A Pastor ended up coming back in the evening, wanting to buy the last of the marshmallow guns, said he wanted to add them into his sermon!  Now that would have been an interesting sermon!  A lady, who talked me down from a $6 sale to $3 handed me a $100 bill.  Of was flabbergasted and told her I could not give her change, so…she didn’t speak very good English, or so I thought and immediately went to someone she was with and return with 3 dollar bills.  I reluctantly gave her the items.

Then….we had a guest stay with us on the following Tuesday.  After chatting until 10:30 pm  Huh-honey and I retired to our bedroom.  I walked into the closet (I have  a shamefully big closet) and my feet were damp.  Well, I said “Oh NO, I know it is late and this is NOT what you want to hear, but our carpet is wet”!  well behind our master bedroom closet is the garage, which holds the water heater, and sure enough….in plain sight, even over the weekend of busy-ness, it was unnoticed.  Water everywhere…the dang water heater was leaking all over the place.  Now mind you…our home is 5 years old this December.  If you know my husband, he would not let it go….we had a guest for crying out loud!  Here he was on his knees ripping out sheetrock at 11 pm at night.  WHAT A MESS!  kinlee and water heater 028 Decision: Turn off the water until I have to get up to shower and our guest has left, then, get started.  I was sick!  Couldn’t believe that all our hard work of preparation (2 weeks) for the garage sale and it being so successful, would ROB us of much needed extra cash for a new water heater!  AHHHH! I cried.  Even my happy pills didn’t cover my blubbering and anger for what was about to become.  V3CASB4G0SCAJ9WJDPCAXWVEAGCAIKGN1OCA7M9A7XCA6B49WNCAY6IL7QCAAF0XHKCA3EOFX5CAGN4XY1CAS3OTE1CASXY8S5CAGI1EZGCANLHRRUCAKMFHOACA297WTGCAKLQ192CAA3IJH3CALE2SX4 Then it hit me, yeah I am a little slow but the bulb finally went on.  UHH, shouldn’t this water heater be under warranty?  I mean, don’t they usually have a 5 year warranty and we are just almost at 5 years!  You know, when you usually buy a new appliance and if you don’t buy the extended warranty, the appliance WILL somehow mysteriously go out on you JUST a week after the warranty is up!  It always happens!  So…Huh-honey found the paperwork, that was luckily taped to the heater.  YES!…called the place where the plumber bought it and SURE enough….it was still under warranty!  NOW, to get the water heater to Standard Plumbing was going to be a job in itself.kinlee and water heater 029

 

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It is a shame, I have a lot of shoes, and clothes, and I was forced to clean out my closet….let go of things, I just couldn’t let go of, you know, that t-shirt that you just know you will wear, to work out in the yard! UH, I don’t do yard work! oh yeah! well, those shoes that hurt but were so cute and look so cute on my feet, but haven’t worn in like…a couple of years, well, it has taken me a few weeks, but…I did it! cleaned it all out!  Funny thing  is, I still take up 80% of the closet LOL.  The clean up and replacement took Huh-honey 2 full days.  He likes to do things himself.  It saves a ton of money. Hey…how did we shower you ask? or flush the potty? hm, (just empty your tank into 5 gallon buckets for potty tank water.  Huh-honey always is thinking ahead, so that is why he stored clean tap water in containers and put it on the shelf in the garage.  It sure came in handy when we had our camp showers!  YEP just heat the water up on the stove, get a really big bucket and stand in the shower and WHA-LA!  works great!  We had plenty of water stored!  What a guy!  Plus eating out is ok too!  I didn’t want to WASTE our wash water on washing up dishes ya know!

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here is my closet with all the carpet torn up and drying out… and some bottled water…

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All of this was a good experience.  Well maybe.  But I did learn something.  The good Lord provides.  I was selfish in thinking WHY ME, but if we would have had to buy a new water heater, we certainly were blessed in our huge successful garage sale to buy one!  and that would have been ok.  But then were doubly blessed to not have to use the money for one after all.  It all worked out.  We tucked some profit away and took some with us on our trip to Salt Lake…

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I am so blessed to have this guy in my life…I don’t think there isn’t a thing he can’t tackle.

 

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It really was a huge mess.  New plywood he just happened to have around, newly reinforced, water sealed all around and underneath, repainted and better than before!

 

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But when all was said and done, we learned a great lesson.  Start saving to replace this water heater in 5 years, because it was pro-rated and now has only 1 year of warranty!  Yeah can you believe it!  They will get you in the end, believe me.  (The water heater builder people).  We have had a busy month….took the “Little Rascals” while we visited up North to “Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus”,

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It was all about the icee in very LARGE tiger shaped mugs that cost $12 each…

EXHAUSTED children at the end of the night…

A visit to a wonderful dinosaur museum at a place called Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah….and a packed picnic lunch for all, looks like Owen is doing the “gotta go pee pee” dance LOL which of course always happens when there are NO BATHROOMS IN THE PARKING LOT WHEN YOU ARE HAVING A PICNIC ON THE LAWN!  Thank goodness he is a boy!   Well I had tons, yeah millions of pictures but…will STOP before I totally burn you all out with the family grandkids stuff!  Much more to come though so..watch out y’all.

Hope you have a great weekend!  HUGS AND SMILE…ME